If I had a Hall of Fame ballot ...

Except for the away uni, which is what they should have been wearing anyway....

I remember in '93, I drove to Detroit to watch KC and the Tigers, in the old ballpark. It poured rain. I was standing in a corner in the walkway underneath, smoking a cigarette. Just as I was taking a puff, I heard the clacking of spikes on concrete, and George Brett walked by. He saw me taking a big drag off the cigarette, and gave me a disgusted look. He had decided to walk underneath, instead of in the rain, to get to the clubhouse. I had been on the fence with smoking, and quit about a week later.

Later the same night, I saw Cecil Fielder hit a ball over the 440 in dead center field. Then it poured rain again, so I left. On the way home, I heard Ernie Harwell say on the radio that the ball Cecil hit was one of only 3 he had ever seen hit out there.

-Chuck, Vegetarian fanboy

Nettles was great defensively and put up some good power numbers but anyone that would take him over Schmidt or Brett is flat out crazy. Did Sparky Anderson ever intentionally walk Graig Nettles with the bases loaded? (He did that once with Brett.)

I'm crazy!

Congrats to Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice!!!





IIRC, they're the 1st 2 left fielders in since Yaz!!

2010 ballot with stats here <CLICKY>

Notables -

Andre Dawson is getting closer, I'd like to see him in.

Roberto Alomar should go 1st ballot.

I'm rooting for Larkin.

No to Blyleven, McGwire, Edgar Martinez.

Congrats to new Hall of Famers (Veteran's Committee) Doug Harvey and Whitey Herzog.

I'm happy Whitey made it. A true baseball man, that changed the game before small ballparks and juice fucked it up.

Andre Dawson deserves to be in. 5 tool player that was crippled, figuratively and literally, by the shitty stadium in Montreal. I recently watched a tape of Ryne Sandberg's induction speech, very good one, and when he called on the Hawk to stand and take a bow, the guy could barely get out of his chair. I'd take him over Rice all day long.

Blyleven I think should be in. His only fault is that he played for shitty teams. He's up there in Ks, shout outs, complete games, and has a good win total. I think no one has lost more 1-0, 2-1 games than him.

Alomar- I don't like him as a person, but he was a good player. I don't know about first ballot, but he's going to get in there sometime.

McGwire-Fuck him.

Fred McGriff- Crime Dawg would have been one of the top sluggers of the past 20 years, if his stats weren't over shadowed by Steroid Stats. I don't think he'll make it in anytime soon, but he'd get my vote.

Larkin- I was never a big fan of his, but I wouldn't complain about him getting in.

Donnie Baseball- If his back injury happened at the end of his career, he'd be a lock. It happened in the middle and took part of his prime along with his power. You can't get in at first base with Gold Gloves. It pains me to say he'll never get in.

Murphy, Parker and Morris....Murphy and Morris will probably get in eventually through Veteran's Committee.

Whitey Herzog: Congrats! Wonderful career.

I got a Yaz rookie card hanging in my apartment. My favorite part of the card is that he's a 2B man.




I got a "used" Whitey Herzog on as OF for the Orioles. I doubt that's worth shit.

Congrats!



2010 Voting Results

Player Votes 2010% 2009%

Andre Dawson 420 77.9% 67.0%

Less than 75% of vote, but still on ballot.

Bert Blyleven 400 74.2% 62.7%
Roberto Alomar 397 73.7% 1st year
Jack Morris 282 52.3% 44.0%
Barry Larkin 278 51.6% 1st year
Lee Smith 255 47.3% 44.5%
Edgar Martinez 195 36.2% 1st year
Tim Raines 164 30.4% 22.6%
Mark McGwire 128 23.7% 21.9%
Alan Trammell 121 22.4% 17.4%
Fred McGriff 116 21.5% 1st year
Don Mattingly 87 16.1% 11.9%
Dave Parker 82 15.2% 15.0%
Dale Murphy 63 11.7% 11.5%
Harold Baines 33 6.1% 5.9%

Less than 5%, will not be on next year's ballot

Andres Galarraga 22 4.1% 1st year
Robin Ventura 7 1.3% 1st year
Ellis Burks 2 0.4% 1st year
Eric Karros 2 0.4% 1st year
Kevin Appier 1 0.2% 1st year
Pat Hentgen 1 0.2% 1st year
David Segui 1 0.2% 1st year
Mike Jackson 0 0% 1st year
Ray Lankford 0 0% 1st year
Shane Reynolds 0 0% 1st year
Todd Zeile 0 0% 1st year

Source: http://www.baseball-reference.com/

Hell yes, the Hawk was bad ass.

Who in the name of God actually voted to put Kevin Appier or David Segui in the HoF?

Home town writers. Appier and Segui probably gave an exclusive 15 years ago, and thats their pay off.

I guess being a dick worked against Alomar. Either that or enough guys just didn't feel he deserved "First Ballot" status, which he doesn't.

Dawson deserved to get in. I wonder if he goes in as an Expo or a Cub? Poor guy gonna need a walker to get on stage.

Happy for Dawson. I wonder how his career would have gone if he didn't play on the concrete of Montreal.

Looking back at the teams, I still cannot believe that the Expos of the late 70s/early 80s never could put it all together and win a pennant. I think their only "division" win was won in the split-season/strike year.


VERY, very happy Blyleven didn't get in. I HATE "compilers". That guy never impressed me. I never went into a game saying "uh oh, they'll got Blyleven on the mound!" Shouldn't get rewarded for just for being mediocre longer than anyone else.







..... but, I think this means Burt's all-but-enshrined in the near future.

Goose Gossage

Tony Oliva

Man, Blyleven was on some shit teams. Yeah, Carlton was great on shit teams in the early 70's, but Blyleven put up those stats pitching against DH's. All those 1-0 and 2-0 losses. A quiet guy that spent his career in small markets. Even in those days the Yankees probably had more radio people covering the team than total media covering the Twins. If Blyleven never gets in, they should start pulling guys out. I'd take Bert on my team over Sutton any day.

I can't stand Sutton either. Never feared him in a game either. Neither isn't the kind of guy you would want as your #1 starter.

Unlike, say a Jack Morris.

I have nothing against small market teams. It's not the issue.

Blyleven was NEVER one of the best at his position at anytime in his career. He won 20 games only once when winning 20 was a requisite. And, he wasn't limited to bad teams. The Twins of his early and late career were quite good, and he was with the Pirates when they were competing every year with the Phillies.

Bottomline, he's got very little "bold highlights" on his sheet. Never led the league in wins or era. Only once in strikeouts.

And, while his stats compare to Sutton's [who shouldn't be in the hall anyway, IMHO], the argument for his was the "300".

Burt doesn't have the "300". In fact, he's ~40 wins short of Sutton.

Way, way, way too many votes for Edgar Martinez. No way he should be getting more votes than Parker, Murphy, and Mattingly. Martinez was just a 1990s version of Al Oliver.

I LOVE DONNIE BASEBALL. If his injury was at the end of his career and catastrophic, like Puckett, he'd be in. Just too much mediocre at the end to get him in.

I hear you about compilers Fatty, not everyone can be Sandy Koufax though. Gimme your top 5 guys that should be thrown out of the Hall.

Yes, the Old Timer's Committee has done horrendous things in the past. The one guy from the Gas House Gang Cardinals, politiced his way to getting a bunch of his buddies in.

2011 ballot, winners announced Wednesday, get details from
http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2011.shtml


Bert Blyleven
Roberto Alomar
Jack Morris
Barry Larkin
Lee Smith
Edgar Martinez
Tim Raines
Mark McGwire
Alan Trammell
Fred McGriff
Don Mattingly
Dave Parker
Dale Murphy
Harold Baines
Carlos Baerga
Jeff Bagwell
Bret Boone
Kevin Brown
John Franco
Juan González
Marquis Grissom
Lenny Harris
Bobby Higginson
Charles Johnson
Al Leiter
Tino Martinez
Raúl Mondesí
John Olerud
Rafael Palmeiro
Kirk Rueter
Benito Santiago
B. J. Surhoff
Larry Walker


I really hope Larkin makes it, and I think he will. Steroids changes the equation, I always said 300 wins, 500 homers, or 3000 hits should be automatic, but McGwire and Palmeiro rightly don't have a chance. Alomar will get in this year. Possibles are Blyleven, Bagwell, and Larry Walker, but I wouldn't vote for any of them.

-Chuck, Vegetarian fanboy

Larkin was a china doll. He had 4 years of over 150 games played. Jeter has played under 150 3 times, one of those years was 149, another 148. Larkin was not the hitter Jeter is. Never over 200 hits, below .300 lifetime, and has 3 more years on Derek to make stats like doubles, runs, RBI, homers looks closer than they actually are. And there is no different era excuse in comparing these two.

I'm admittedly biased, I've never been a big fan of Larkin, and I'm a Yankee lifer. I just put the guy in the Perennial All Star category, just not HOF. I don't see the guy have the intangible qualities of say Ryne Sandberg to over come being a step down in #'s. Only my opinion, I could be wrong, and I wouldn't complain as much about Larkin getting in as Rice, that guy only had 4 Hall worthy years, playing in a hitters park.

Alomar is an asshole, but deserves to get in.

If Mac and Raffy ever get in, their plaques should hang in the urinal.

Another guy for the Hall of the Very Good: Tim Raines. I guess in 87 or 88 he got hurt and it took him out of the Hall chase, but from 81 until then the guy was f'n good. Look at 1981, guy stole 71 bases in 88 games. WOW. Guy struck out more than he walked once in his career, even with all them years of hanging on at the end.

Alomar and Blyleven made it. Larkin: 62%, he'll make it in the next 3 years.

2013 full ballot - interesting to see how the 'roiders do. Biggio should go 1st ballot.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2013.shtml

Biggio

Fred McGriff

Dale Murphy

^this

Guys like McGriff get shafted by all them dudes juice #s. Fred never accused or suspected, and he put up 30hr/year for a decade, when 30 was a slugger, not something a 2nd baseman was doing every year.

Biggio going in would be good for Houston, cause Bagwell never gonna sniff the Hall.

Does Piazza make it? Or do the rumors spread by Yankee's fans taint his image still? He's happily married to a Penthouse pet and has a kid, yet rumors by Yankee's fans forced him to actually give a press conference to say he wasn't gay. To me, the steroid thing might be the same situation.

P.S. - Jeter is gay.

Jeter could be gay, hiring mediocre actresses to pretend to be his gf and floating rumors in the papers about his gift bag for whores.

As long as he aint fuckin little kids, then I don't care what he does if we can squeeze another ring out of him.

ESPN has been doing a top 100 of all time list this week.

Far more entertaining is Old Hoss Radbourn's comments on their selections on Twitter.


#6: T. Cobb. Demented racist whose style of base ball I adore. Nicknamed "Georgia Peach" because peaches are apparently grown in sphincters.


#7: R. Clemens. If you hate him, take pleasure in knowing every single day of his life removes him from the only thing he loves: relevance.

#11: H. Gehrig. True story: pummeled W. Pipp half to death with a shovel then stoically submitted his application for the open job at 1B

#15: R. Hornsby. "Never smoked or drank." I think that sums it up.

#16: M. Schmidt. He was great. Big deal. Try that cutesy stance with me, sir, and you would die.


#22: F. Robinson. Ordered a lad off his lawn then beat him with a tire iron anyway. Golfed his way to Washington as the Expos burned.

#24: G. Seaver. Greatest Met of all time, which is like naming syphilis the king of venereal diseases. 231 CG in 20 years. Took me 5 months.

#31: C. Ripken. Shockingly rude of him not to catch Cal Ripken's Disease and pass away before breaking L. Gehrig's streak.

#32: B. Gibson. A man of epic stature, endurance, and mean-ness who failed to fire one right through T. McCarver's face.

#38: Hahahahahahahahahahahahhaha oh my lord no, there's no East Coast bias here, oh no. (Choice was Derek Jeter)

#40: C. Yastrzemski. Polish potato farmer who went to Notre Dame. Overcame these handicaps to have a very fine career.

#43: B. Robinson. As a rule I never found that having the reputation of "able to catch anything" paid off in the places I frequented.

#54: W. Boggs. Enjoyed fornication, beer, chicken, loose women, smashing doubles, invisibility, and his mustache. The consummate team-mate.


#60: O. Smith. All-glove, no-bat shortstop who could have been from my era except for the black thing. Forced out by T. LaRussa, that ass.

#68: J. Bagwell. It is nigh time to acknowledge the unspoken truth: while batting he looked like a defecating monkey.

#69: F. Thomas. Nicknamed "The Big Hurt" because your ears bleed when listening to him attempt to speak. Parlayed this skill into a TV job.

#76: C. Fisk. Ego larger than you. If he had never lived there would be no "Good Will Hunting." This would have been a fine thing.

#81: "Duke" Snider. His inclusion is a tribute to the loyal fans of Brooklyn, who mercifully are all dying and can finally shut up.

#82: "Kid" Nichols. Trash. Never won more than 31 games. Earned his moniker from a Shanghai madam after she espied his manhood

#83: M. McGwire. Would be ranked higher but angered all the scribes when the fellatio they gave him in 1998 gave them oral cancer in 2005.

#85: M. Ramirez. Fun test: ask a scribe if "enigmatic" is secret code for "IQ of 7." I would have loved to have this guy on my team.

#90: C. Biggio. In my day, a man hit by 285 pitches dies 285 times.

#89: J. Palmer. Less popular with his team-mates than polio. Gave up 303 home runs, one for each of the fatherless children he abandoned.

#93: T. Glavine. Milquetoast lefty with a strike zone larger than E. Gregg. Not a bride or bridesmaid but rather the groom's ugly sister.

#95: S. Sosa. Would not have been allowed to play in my day, a rare case of this rule benefiting everyone.

And here are some unrelated tweets but ones that I like.

Royals' owner D. Glass to trade Jack Stack Barbeque and Arthur Bryant's for the rights to the McRib.

Adding a no-trade clause to a M. Young contract is like putting a Do Not Eat sign above a pile of feces.

Odd to see a modern victory by Redskins that does not involve a casino.

My favorite part of "Black Friday" was shopping for land in Dead Injun Territory.

Where's the Hammer? Aaron.

Shutout!

Yeah, I don't blame the writers. Biggio will get in, but there are still many writers that won't vote for a guy on the first ballot unless he is an upper echelon guy. Biggio is certainly deserving, and will get in eventually, but he isn't a Seaver/Bench/Reggie type legend.

Next year you get Maddux and Glavine, and maybe Torre as a manager, so the Steroid Bunch will continue to take a back seat.

Caller on WFAN in NY is trying to say the gay rumors hurt Piazza along w/ steroid rumors. Hahahahahahaha.

Is Cobb in yet?

This was the first sports thread I found, so I'm putting this link here. If you listen to Francesa, you will love this Twitter Troll account.

https://twitter.com/Mike_Francesa









Found another one, this guy has some good photoshops. https://twitter.com/MikeFrancesaNY

Deadspin hammers Francesca, much to my enjoyment.

If he could turn it down 15-20% it would be ok, because he IS knowledgeable, but the thought that he is infallible gets tiresome. He needs a partner to mix it up, preferably not Mad Dog. That guy is an annoying elitist and I've been happy not hearing black guys call in to argue that he is a racist, which he is. Andre Rison, Andre Dawson, he calls them Ann-dre. Andre Agassi is On-dre as it should be. That is just one example.

I'll have to root Deadspin.

Other than Palmeiro, Biggio is the first player with over 3,000 hits not to get elected in his first year of eligibility since Paul Waner in 1951. Frank Thomas is also on the ballot next year.

RIP Earl Weaver. Now Pinella is the angriest living manager.

Stan Musial died.

Aw shit. God Bless Stan the Man.

Who is the Greatest Hitter Alive now? Willie Mays gets Greatest Living Ball Player since DiMaggio's death, so I wouldn't use him for hitter. Ted Williams was the hitter before Stan.

I don't know if I can go with Gwynn (.338), cause he had no pop, but the only other real candidate is Pujols, and his career aint over, average can go down. Aaron did bat .305 for his career, but has few seasons where his BA pops out at you.

George Brett? If you eliminate Tony Gwynn then you are also eliminating Rod Carew and Wade Boggs. Brett did have some pop. You have to consider his home ball park is basically Death Valley for home run hitters and was even more so in the 1970s and 1980s.

It pains me to call someone the Greatest Living Hitter who only batted .305 on their career though (Brett, Aaron).

I may have to go with Gwynn. His first year in the majors he only played in 54 games and hit .289. Over the next 19 years he never hit below .309, won 8 batting titles, had 7 seasons hitting over .350 (including 4 in a row at ages 34-37), and he only struck out 430 times in 20 years. Lifetime avg is .338.

If I were starting a team I'd take Aaron in his prime every time. He had great defensive skills as well.

Looking over his stats last night, Hammerin Hank was amazingly consistent and durable.

I'm just going to treat this as the baseball thread. He might not be a superstar, but he's still the face of the New York Mets. I saw David Wright just announced his engagement to this hot bitch. She even has a cool name: Molly Beers.

Jesus Christ, look at how thin that fuck pig is on the side view.

Wright is a solid player that had a ton of responsibility dumped on him right as he was brought to the majors. I'm glad the Mets recognized that and paid the man. He may not be a superstar, but if he stays healthy, I could see him hitting enough numbers to get in the HOF (3000hits, 1500RBI, etc). I'd be surprised if he gets near 30hr again with that stadium though.

Hey Steezo, Piazza doesn't do many interviews, but he did one w/ Francesa earlier this week promoting his book. Here is a link to the page it is on. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/audio-on-demand/mike-francesa-1/#

Who is going to left to vote for in the future? Seems like every major leaguer is guilt.

Hate to set myself up to be wrong, but Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Randy Johnson, Biggio, Ichiro. I'm on the fence about Chipper Jones being a HOFer, but I don't think there were any rumors or reasons connecting him to PEDs. Vlad Guerrerro?

Now with guys getting dimed out in the Yankees & Mets locker rooms peddling PEDs, it does cast a pall over Jeter and Piazza, but I don't think there is any reason to think Mariano did them, and he is a lock first ballot guy.

With A-Rod coming out of Seattle, and Jay Buhner there hitting 40 HRs, along with him completely falling apart in Cincy, I have to lump Griffey Jr in with the steroid guys. If it is unfair, so be it, but if he wasn't juicing, then him and all the other guys that were playing clean should have made a bigger stink about the scum that was.

Personally, Pettitte is the guy that used em that hurts the most. He gets a partial pass from me, because he admitted it, but it still taints the memory of a great big game pitcher.

It's just sports medicine and ethics.

Baseball's record book is revered like the bible. NFL, NBA, NHL have all gone through changes in the game that have turned their record books upside down. The MLB record book was fairly consistent from the 1920's to the steroid era. Only major change in the game was the lowering of the mound when pitching became too dominant in the late 60's. 60HRs was touched 2x in 70years, then surpassed 6x in three years, all by guys that juiced.

I can write off pitchers doctoring the baseball and corked bats as gamesmanship, because they aren't used everyday, in all situations. The effects of Juice and HGH are an everyday thing that hurts the integrity of the game.

Come on.

In another sport, Armstrong doped; I didn't follow the shit, but that seems to be what happened or at least what people seem to think.

He won a lot because he probably lived his sport and had some of the best medical advice at his disposal.
These doctors most likely got hired by teams who have sponsors and those like winners very much.

It isn't that far-fetched an idea to me that professional athletes just have to perform in the eyes of these people allowing them to compete on the level they strive for. It wouldn't be absurd to think that long-term health ethically's considered secondarily when opposed to short-term performance financially.

All of this is transferable.

While the idea of competitive sports is a noble one, there seems to be an advantage to know how what is changed in the athlete's body to whatever else and how which test would be able to prove this or not.

Then there's greed.

Armstrong would get IV's of low doses of PEDs right after doing his piss tests, and claimed they were part of his cancer treatment. That is kinds like how they do shit in Horse Racing. The horse gets a shot of X amount, Y days before the race, so the after race test doesn't show a high enough level of Steroids or pain killers to turn up hot.

The top guys are all paid well, for them it is more for ego than greed.

Of course it is. The guys paying them could find other egos to pay.

At the top of what is humanly possible, engineering sets in, but should have severe health penalties. After some point, they're all cyborgs.

I'd be surprised if Chipper Jones isn't a first ballot inductee.

That's what they thought about Biggio and he has 3000 hits.

What about Frank Thomas? He's eligible next year. Another future possibility could be Trevor Hoffman.

I like Frank Thomas, but I think he's going to get lumped into the user category. Though if you look at his #'s it was his batting average that tailed off during his career, not so much his HRs. I'd vote for him and I'd vote for Piazza, because there is nothing firm on either of them.

If Hoffman makes it, it will take him a couple years. To show how impressive Mariano is, his career ERA is 0.66 lower than Hoffman's, and Hoffman pitched in the NL West, not AL East.

Here's an article on Chippers chances.

I tell ya what, considering he played 3rd for most of his career, then ya he is a HOFer. I still don't think he is first ballot though. That's not trying to knock him, it is just to say he isn't Schmidt or Seaver or Bench or Carlton.

Woman that "The Natural" is based on died.

http://todayentertainment.today.com/_new...rity-at-83?lite

Tim McCarver to quit after this season. Good riddance!

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/tim-mccarver-step-down-fox-164551913--mlb.html

Only FOX. I heard his interview on Fransesser's show. He said he's gonna stopp doing FOX and postseason.

Is it time for award predictions?

Is that an alternate spelling of Francesa?

I prefer "Fatcesa" myself ...

Francesca Le. Franceska Jaimes. Confusion.

Fatcesa Le, Fatcesa Jaimes, Fatcesa Valentina, DeFatcesa Gallardo.

Commata Confoundment.

Yep. Sometimes I type like he speaks. There are 2 Twitter parody accts that do a good job. At it. One guy is good w/ the photoshops. I've seen tgat guyquoted on the Daily News' last page.

The best part is that those guys actually get under Fatcesa's skin.

Interesting Opening Day. Yanks got shit holed, Mets showed life. Harper became the youngest to homer 2x in the opener and Kershaw became the second guy to hit a homer and throw a shut out. Hopefully all signs of an interesting year.

Amen to that, bro.

That's back-to-back bad outings by CC.

First getting eliminated in the ALCS. Then opening day.

CC usually is a warm weather/second half pitcher.

Yankees got problems this year. 1/2 there starting line up is hurt right now. Jeter, Granderson, Tex, and A-Roid. Take that kind of production out of any line up and it turns to shit. I hope A-Roid is out for the season. Jeter is a couple weeks. Grandy is May/June. Tex, who knows.

They can't throw money around, because under 189million next year means when they go over the luxury tax level again they will pay 17% tax instead of 50%. That is a whole lot of money staying in Steinbrenner pockets instead of going into the pockets of the Marlins and Pirates owners.

All true. But, when healthy, he's been a GREAT big game pitcher. A stop the bleeding pitcher.

He did none of that in the ALCS and again today, with everyone on the DL, he didn't step it up. I find it troubling.

A-Rod isn't A-Rod. Tex might not be Tex. Grandy is playing for a contract ... with the 189 limit, he won't be back with the Yanks in 2014. And, no one knows what Jeter has left.

If they don't make the playoffs, unlikely but possible, then I can't see them sticking to the 189 plan. They can't punt two years. Especially with Mo gone and maybe Jeter, too.

My Mets are in full PUNT. It's ALL about 2014 or 2015 or whenever.

But, they are going to be TERRIBLE.

They lost their two best pitchers of the 1st half last year, the only half they were competitive in. Dickey was traded for catchers of the future. Santana is done.

They have no OF. They have Wright. A passable ML SS in Tejada. A possible gem C in D'Arnaud. Maybe they can get Ike back to 2010-11 form, but I doubt it.

It's ALL about their young pitchers. I remember the lost years of Generation K. You remember all the hype of Joba-Hughes-Kennedy. These things don't often come to pass. They did for the Mets in 69. They did again in 86. It's a lottery ticket to think that's the panacea. But, all we've got at the moment is that lottery ticket. And, all the numbers have to come up big.

If it doesn't offend anyone I'm going to treat this as a general baseball thread.

Everyone feel free to rate just how bad of a call this was last night and why the fuck are none of the talking heads on ESPN talking about it. (My theory is because it clearly shows their fucking golden boy Mike Trout getting thrown out while trying to steal second only to have umdouchenozzlepire Marty Foster call him safe) Only ended up costing the Royals three runs and the game last night.

ESPN loves their stars. I thought several of them were going to join al Queda after triple-crown winner Cabrera "stole" the MVP from Trout.

You win a triple crown, you lead you team to the playoffs and you didn't deserve the MVP?

I don't get their logic.

This is the same network that was still slurping up Bonds after it was CLEAR he was a juicer. I'm surprised they don't have a reporter on Favre's lawn. Or on Tebow's.

This fucking douchefuck Marty Foster needs to get superkicked in the cunt. In addition to costing the Royals the game Friday night he threw out Chris Getz for arguing over a call at first yesterday and he just threw out Billy Butler from the dugout for arguing balls and strikes.

You fucking arrogant twat string. No one is coming to the ball park to watch you blow calls and throw people out of the game.

I do so HATE when umps think they are part of the game.

Country Joe West was one of the worst.

There were several who used to follow unhappy players to the dugout, all but taunting them to say something, just to toss the guy.

A pox on all their houses!!!

Sadly my team is ump unaffected. Their own incompetence - players, management, ownership - has driven my Mets into hate-able laughing stocks.

I'm close to being totally sick of baseball.

Considering how big a baseball fan I was, that is quite an inversion.

Foster's crew managed to make one more atrocious call and one highly questionable decision. With two out Royals batter hit a ground ball to Trumbo who was playing about ten feet or so off first. Trumbo jogs over to the bag and then goes on to the dug out. Umpire rules that Trumbo never stepped on the bag and calls the Royals batter safe. Replay clearly shows Trumbo stepped on the bag. Sciosia comes out and blows a gasket. Immediately after a Fox Sports Kansas City mic picks up Sciosia say fuck you to Foster from the dugout but Foster doesn't run him. (Royals, being managed by Yost, end up with men on first and third with two outs and the tying run at the plate. Yost uses some scrub just called up from Omaha who was hitting .194 in AAA as a pinch hitter which results in a predictable ground out to the shortstop.)

Ninth inning same score two runners on and one out Jeff Francouer(who was put in to replace Butler) at the plate. Swings and misses at strike three and is called out by Foster who was behind home plate today . Francouer then argues after the call that he foul tipped the pitch and asks Foster to check for pine tar on the baseball. Foster gets the ball, looks at it and changes the call to a foul tip. Sciosia goes even more ballistic at Foster and gets tossed. Francouer, with his extraordinary ability to swing at any pitch located on the outside corner of the western hemisphere then flies out to the center fielder. Angels get the next batter to end game and hopefully Marty Foster's umpiring career. I am absolutely 1000% percent certain that Sciosia's head would have exploded Scanners style in the club house had Francouer homered on the next pitch.

Stat of the day home runs hit since May 15.

Chicago Cubs pitchers-3
entire Kansas City Royals roster-2 (both by Miguel Tejada of all people)

If you read the post above me you might notice that Ned Yost replaced Billy Butler with Jeff Francouer at the DH spot when Butler was thrown out of the game yesterday. You might also notice that Yost used a backup catcher who was just called up from Omaha last night to replace Salvador Perez (whose grandmother died yesterday ) and who was hitting .194 in AAA ball to pinch hit with two men on while down 5-2 in the 8th inning yesterday. I know you are wondering exactly what LaRussaian manuever Yost used to put Tejada in since he did not use him in either of those situations. The answer is none. Tejada was still on the bench when the game was over. The loud crack you heard late Sunday afternoon (about 4:50pm CDT) was me ramming my head through the dry wall in my apartment.

My stat of the day for the Mets:

Dillon Gee became the first pitcher in Mets history to allow a homer to the opposing pitcher in back-to-back appearances.



Last night, Shaun Marcum became the third pitcher to have a 12-strikeout, no-walk game in which he got a no-decision this season, joining Matt Harvey of the Mets, King Felix.

The last team to have a pair of pitchers get no-decisions, despite a 12-strikeout, no-walk effort, in the same season was the 1967 Cincinnati Reds.

At least you have Matt Harvey. Add in the catching prospect and Wheeler and there could be a lil excitement in July and August.

EDIT: sorry. I posted this before I read your 12k/no decision post.

I'm hopeful on d'Arnaud, the catching prospect. But, he's injured. Again. Seems that's his M.O. So, I'm pessimistic but hopeful.

If that makes any sense ...

The game of baseball is 9 innings again in the Bronx.



http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=30965689

3 Biggest Losses for the Yankees in my life time:

George dying

Mariano retiring

Munson dying

Munson, yes, and I remember that well.

George? Fuck George. I'll see your Steinbrenners and raise you both the new house and the disgraceful way they treated Torre over his demise.

not hating because he could be the best we'll ever see but save a few tears for jeter next year or the one after that.

The era's gone. He should bow out now before A-Roid and those half-human Steingrabber offspring destroy what's left.

I love Jeter, but he is way easier to replace than Mo. Or Jorge for that matter. Jeter was the face of the franchise, but never should have been captain. O'Neil was the vocal leader of the team, then it was Posada. If Jeter was such a great captain, then the team would not have had to bring in "clubhouse guys" such as Swisher and Sabathia.

re New House: It is going on in all sports. The long time, "real fan" season ticket holders are priced out to make way for corporate tools. In turn, you get dead crowds who spend more time at the Hard Rock Cafe than watching the game. New Giant Stadium is the same way. You can't tell at Barclays, because when the Nets played in NJ, 9 outta 10 times they were lucky to fill the lower bowl.

Don't you Yankee bastards even think about trying to pry Greg Holland away from the Royals.

Nah, I think they are set to go with David Robertson next year.

Paper today is saying Cano wants 10 years $305. Him and Jay Z must be huffing each other's farts to come up with that. Says the Dodgers are not even going to make an offer. I would tell him 5/$125 and if he walks out the door w/o signing it is going to be 5/$120 when he comes back. Yankees are going to be bad for a couple years. They can be bad with him or without.

P.S. I bet a dollar to a donut Jay Z sent Riahanna to Cano's hotel room as an incentive to sign w/ his new agency. That drug addled mess would do anything Jay Z tells her to.

Someone needs to explain three things to Cano.

1. Only two players in history have got that kind of contract.
2. Rodriguez and Pujols were both way better at the time they got that money than Cano is today.
3. Those contracts torpedoed the teams that signed them.

Jay Z gotta prove he's a balla. You see what happened to Master P after that Ricky Williams contract?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2014.shtml#BBWAA

#'s 3,4,&5 on the all time wins list for managers, all 3 are deserving. Big ups to Brooklyn!, for Mr. Torre.

Of the players, Maddux will challenge Seavers mark for Highest percentage of votes. Glavine, Thomas and Biggio should get in, I don't know if they all will this year, but I listed them in order of likelihood.

This is Jack Morris' final year on the ballot. He will go in within the first couple years he is on the Veteran's Committee ballot. He is borderline, but the most dominant pitcher of his era and that 10inning shutout in the World series is legendary.

I know it's dumb, but I still think of Joe Torre in a Cardinal uniform, listening to him play with Jack Buck and Mike Shannon doing the play-by-play. Maybe no less silly than remembering Yogi Berra grew up with Joe Garagiola on The Hill in St. Louis.

Biggio and Piazza have a decent chance, but I remain wary after that little hissy fit the BBWA writers threw last year. I would doubt any other second-year players make the cut. I wish CrimeDog McGriff would get in, if for no other reason than his passionate endorsement of the Tom Emansky instructional videos.

Glavine's 300 wins should put him in.

Yes Glavine should be in, but there is a section of the BWAA who thinks first year votes are for the elite of the elite. That may hold Glavine back. Also, I wonder if him and Maddux are sick of each other.

McGriff is the guy I think most effected by steroid #s. When he started out, Chili Davis and Jeffery Leonard hitting 22HR was a slugger. Crime Dog hit that 30+ a year consistently, and didn't spike up when everyone else started juicing. I think he is more of a Hall of Famer than Jim Rice.

I remember when Stienbrenner was ridiculed for hiring Joe. Best move the man ever made.

I recall an old Dennis Leary comedy bit: "I think Billy Martin summed it up best when he said, 'It's OK, I'll drive.'" Recall when Seinfeld did a spoof of Steinbrenner and he threatened to fire Buck Showalter, then retraced, "Wait, you didn't hear that from me." Than the real George canned him just the same.

Some of these guys will be off the ballot soon. But Jerkules is right, the veteran's committee will find a place for them soon enough.

I had an argument on another internet forum about a week ago who thought that Tim Raines should be a lock. I pointed out to him that it pretty much took him over 20 years to accomplish what Ichiro did in ten (minus the MVP, Rookie of the Year, and 10 Gold Gloves that Raines never did accomplish). Guy's only counter argument is career OBP. That's the drawback of all these Sabermetric geeks these days. All they look at are the numbers. They never actually watch the players play.

Raines was a very good but not great player who seemed to spend half his career on the disabled list. Ichiro should be a first ballot HoFer who put up ridiculous numbers for a decade considering he was 27 when he first played in the majors. Raines was basically a more often injured Willie Wilson with more power.

I like Raines. It seemed like every time the Yankees had a late inning rally to win a game in 1996 it was Raines starting it, followed by Jeter advancing him and Bernie brining them home. Dude isn't a HOFer.

Maddux, Glavine and Thomas elected to the HOF.

No word on % yet, though one Dodgers writer for MLB.com said he left Maddux off because he won't vote for any Steroid Era players.

Ugh. Biggio missed by a vote or 2, coming in at 74.8%. Piazza was #5 at 62%.

EDIT: Maddux got 97%

Next year will be first time for Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and John Smoltz.

Comcast Sportsnet shows cock and balls on gay new Cubs Mascot. like 15 seconds in.

Deadspin is claiming credit for getting that image out there. The anchors start laughing like they cannot believe their eyes.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2015.shtml

Randy, Pedro, Biggio.

To start the argument before someone mentions him, Smoltz is not a Hall of Famer. Dude only had 1 20win season, and 2 others with more than 15 wins, on a team that was perennially one of the best in baseball.

That's ridiculous. He only had one 20 win season because he spent five years in his prime as a closer. If he is starting those years his overall stats become better than Glavine's. Your argument makes a better case against Cox being in the Hall of Fame than it does against Smoltz

He spent that time as a closer because he was brittle, and it was only 3 full seasons. There was a 1/2 season before that, when he came back from Tommy John surgery.

So what, if he would have started those years, and some how remained healthy, he would have gotten to 250wins, and still been way outside the qualifications for a HOFer.

His only HOF qualification is being the #3 pitcher on TBS. There are a bunch of pitchers of his era that were much better than him, as displayed that he was only top 3 in Cy Young voting 2x.

He's not quite Mike Mussina, then add a few years as an elite closer. Close, but doesn't quite make the cut.

Yep. Mussina had a better career, and he falls short on the HOF.

Loved the Moose when he pitched for Baltimore and didn't suck too bad as a Yankee...but I could not vote for him for the HoF.

Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
John Smoltz
Craig Biggio

All got elected.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-base...-biggio-elected

Biggio i have the only real issue, and he never played a meaningful game in October, and when he did he shit the bed.

RIP Yogi. Welcome to the real Hall of Fame.

Come on, bro. When Yogi gets to heaven, you think he's asking for a Mets cap? This picture says it all about Yogi's career. I can't tell which one has the "5" on it to commemorate the 5 in a row they won.




Here is an article about his time in the Navy. He was a gunner's mate on a "rocket boat" during the D-Day Invasion.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2013/10/yogi_berras_d-day_service_reme.html

Traditionally, ballplayers sell beer and shaving gear. What's with all the beards?

^ MLB's finally shaking off the effect of George Steinbrenner.

http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2011/08/mattingly-hair-20-years-ago.html

Blowback from Lincecum winning Cy Youngs looking like a 14y/o girl.

That's not a beard. That is Chris Archer's hair. Your television is upside down.

Again? Damnit!!!

Fucking Pirates. Can't even shit the bed properly.

Good thing Hamels spent the last few years with the Phillies. He is probably used to stuff like the 7th inning yesterday by now.

Congrats on the World Series, Steezo. I'm a Yankees fan, but I don't hate the Mets, just like to tweak their fans from time to time.

The team is great and if the pitching holds up, they gonna get a ring. I'm happy for the fans, but the Wilpons winning irks me. I don't like that family.

P.S. If the Royals ever close out the Blue Gays, TUP and Steez should do an avatar bet or something.

I generally don't bet on baseball because I don't want to jinx my team. I'm still convinced my secretly Dad bet on the Mets/Yankees Series in 2000 and that's why the Mets lost. But I do bet every year with a friend of mine about the Mets regular season. Usually it's the number of wins in the current season, but this year it was whether they would make the playoffs. I finally won the bet for a change and my friend owes me a steak dinner, although he's trying to say we later changed that to a round of drinks and a table dance at the Bush Co. I don't remember changing the bet, but I'll probably go along with it.

Like or dislike the Wilpons, they got majorly screwed over by Bernie Madoff. I think they lost half a $billion. The (fake) returns on their investments were the reason they structured player contracts the way they did. It made sense to invest the money with Madoff and get 10-15% returns on it and then pay the payer deferred payments later.

They got screwed over by their own egos, thinking they were the smartest people around, investing everything they could with the smartest investor around, and not doing their due diligence.

Real estate bubble bursting hurt em badly also. Both happened as they were sinking money into the new stadium.

Anyway, that pitching staff looks unstoppable. Will only get better next year when Wheeler comes back from Tommy John in June.

New official Kansas City Royals team motto/slogan.

"We are so good even Ned Yost can't keep us out of the World Series."

^ LOL. TUP, if you can wrangle an away ticket, my couch is yours. Join the party.

I'd probably have better luck wrangling a Kardashian.

Here's something for Fangraphs and Baseball Perspective to chew on. Ned Yost will be managing the American League in the All-Star Game in back to back years.

Everything points to this being a good matchup. The Mets have flame-throwing control pitchers and KC has contact hitters who can hit the fastball. As far as the offense, the Mets are a new team since the beginning of August and actually are a pretty good team to hit with the DH in the American League games. We have some great defensive players and sometimes have to sit some of our offensive guys to play them. Cuddyer, Uribe, Flores and Duda could prove crucial in the AL games. And Cespedes will be batting against some pitching he may have seen in the past, compared to the NL clubs he's faced recently (which he has hammered anyway).

I still can't believe all of this (World Series trip) is happening. I feel like maybe I died and don't know it or I'm in a coma and having a dream. I told my brain to put a live elephant into my dream so I know to try to wake myself up. So far no elephants.

Rear Admiral puts on this horse and pony tale about living outside of the U.S. for tax purposes. Thanks to last night we now know the real story. He is living outside of the U.S. so he can get someone decent announcing the World Series instead of Buck and Reynolds.

Joe Buck is relentless at using the word relentless.

Thor!!!! Huge win tonight for my Mets. My eyes and face are burning from the wind, my hands are sore from clapping, and my throat is hoarse. Loved it from the first (purpose) pitch on. Syndergaard pitched a real gem and we're right back in this thing! I think that long layoff had a big impact on the Mets bats and now that they seem back on track, I think they have a real chance. Amazin'!

Clippard couldn't throw strikes and Murphy couldn't field and the team overall couldn't hit except for Conforto, but it was a fun game for the first 7 innings at least. And I got a game ball after Bartolo Colon got the last out in the 6th. Someone unseen from the dugout tossed it right to me. Maybe it was Colon since he was looking right at me when he left the field and saw I was pointing at him and cheering. Also I saw Jerry Seinfeld walking in and out of the Delta Sky Club after the game. I think he was picking up his wife and kid from the private lounge area.

Random New Yorker walking by, yelling to KC fans: So what!?!?!? You aren't even from Kansas!!! You're from Missouri!!!

Random New Yorker walking the other way: So what is Kansas somehow better than Missouri?

The Mets are second with 11 runs scored after the 6th inning in the playoffs this year. The Royals are first with 44.

They should give an MVP for batting coaches. I've never seen a team foul off so many two strike pitches as the Royals. Almost every at-bat has been a struggle for the Mets pitching staff.

Tonight, I get to see the first Mets game ever played in November, so that's something. And we have 3 aces lined up as starters, so it's not impossible.

My condolences, Steezo.

Congrats TUP. You love Ned Yost now, huh?

Harvey was so great tonight. My hands are swollen and the skin is splitting from clapping and my voice is shot from cheering him on. Having said that, they should've only given him 1 batter in the 9th before bringing in Familia. And for how great they were in getting the Mets to the Series, I'll be surprised if either Murphy or Cespedes are on the team next year. Shocked if Cespedes is back, actually.

Not too many positives from tonight's game, although I did make the Jumbotron sometime during the middle innings, cheering after Murphy completed a double play (without booting the ball for a change).

You mean the manager with the best playoff game winning percentage (minimum 20 games managed in playoffs) in the history of Major League Baseball? (Steps away from computer to listen to the chorus of Sabernerds bashing their heads into walls as they read that)

The Royals are the Michael Myers of baseball. You can throw them off a cliff, set them on fire, electrocute them, run them over with a car, drop a piano on them and leave them for dead. Then when you think they are finished and you turn your back on them they disembowel you with a butcher knife.

Yeah, Mets aint paying Cespides $20+million, nor Murphy $12-15. They better drop the dime on some sort of offense though, because they gonna run out of b-level prospects to use as trade bait at the deadline.

KC's scouting report had a big impact as well: Make d'Arnaud throw the ball; make Duda throw the ball. I don't think our catcher caught anyone stealing 2nd this series and if Duda makes that throw in the 9th, we're playing another game tomorrow.

I guess we in the crowd are partly to blame for the 9th inning. We had Harvey so pumped up he couldn't throw a strike. And the crowd just wouldn't stand for him not at least starting the 9th. But, like I already said, you have to yank him after he walks the first guy up in the 9th.

BTW does anyone still want to complain about the voting in the All-Star Game?

I have a lot of respect for the KC team. I didn't enjoy having so many of their fans at Citi Field for the last two games, but I can't blame them for coming after winning the first 2 at home.

Random New York observation: If you were to guess the demographics of the city based on the crowd at Citi Field, you would think it was still mostly white, Irish and Italian.

That's more a reflection on MLB and the world series, no?

All the Koreans in Queens were too busy staffing Jack shacks in the tri-state area to go to the game. The coloreds to lazy to go, the jews too cheap and the mexicans were too busy working.

Dude, you won, enjoy it and don't ruin the good feelings people are having towards the Royals. Them books were cooked.

Personally I'd like to see the All Star game be USA vs The World and have the foreign players against the Americans. There is interleague play every day now, so AL v. NL is old news.

I think my vocal cords may be permanently damaged. It's been over a week since Game 5 and I still sound like a 2 pack-a-day smoker.

Well, one more plus from going to the Series. I get a week's worth of free coffee because I brought back a commemorative shot glass to give to the only hot barista I know who likes baseball.

2016 ballot.

See Griffey and Hoffman being 1st ballot selections.

Griffey and Piazza only. Griffey set a new record being on 99.3% of ballots.

See full results here:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2605588-2016-bbwaa-hall-of-fame-election-results-announced

I feel good for both of them. Griffey now has the highest % vote total in HOF history, edging out Met's great Tom Seaver. So does Piazza go in with a Mets cap or a Dodger's cap? His preference is for the Mets.

440 votes cast-

437 Ken Griffey Jr. 99.3% HOF
365 Mike Piazza 83.0% HOF


315 Jeff Bagwell 71.6%
307 Tim Raines 69.8%
296 Trevor Hoffman 67.3%
230 Curt Schilling 52.3%
199 Roger Clemens 45.2%
195 Barry Bonds 44.3%
191 Edgar Martinez 43.4%
189 Mike Mussina 43.0%
180 Alan Trammell 40.9% Last year on ballot
150 Lee Smith 34.1%
92 Fred McGriff 20.9%
73 Jeff Kent 16.6%
68 Larry Walker 15.5%
54 Mark McGwire 12.3% Last year on ballot
51 Gary Sheffield 11.6%
46 Billy Wagner 10.5%
31 Sammy Sosa 7.0%


Eliminated from consideration


11 Jim Edmonds 2.5%
8 Nomar Garciaparra 1.8%
3 Mike Sweeney 0.7%
2 David Eckstein 0.5%
2 Jason Kendall 0.5%
1 Garret Anderson 0.2%
0 Brad Ausmus 0.0%
0 Luis Castillo 0.0%
0 Troy Glaus 0.0%
0 Mark Grudzielanek 0.0%
0 Mike Hampton 0.0%
0 Mike Lowell 0.0%
0 Randy Winn 0.0%

Amazed Bagwell is getting so close. People must have their head in the sand about his obvious juicing.

Also surprised Raines is so close. I love him as a player, but always felt he was a notch below HOF.

Hoffman will probably get in next year.

I'm the same way on Raines. Always struck me as Willie Wilson with more power and more injuries.

Curt Schilling had this to say about whether or not he should be in the Hall: "By my criteria, no—I’m not. I’ve always thought that Hall of Famers are people that you don’t debate about." I'd tend to agree with that. If you have to ask the question, then they shouldn't get in.

My nightmare continues.

Tell Harvey to wear a rubber when he's getting birthday butt from a ho and he won't get a UTI. If he has to bare back em, pee right after and drink some cranberry juice.

At least we have one pitcher who has shown he can beat Kansas City. I really would've loved for the Series to make it to Game 7 last year just to see what would've happened. Oh well, it is what it is. Nice win today.

Hey Steezo.....I think that my Phillies are going to lose 100 games this season.

Wow, it's possible. I just checked the over/under for wins for the Phillies and they range from 65-66.5. And the Braves are sposed to be just as bad, if not worse.

Currently debating whether or not to place a bet with one of my friends as to whether or not the Mets will reach 90 wins this season. He still owes me a steak dinner for the Mets making the playoffs last year, so I'm gonna wait until we go out to eat before I decide on whether or not to bet this year.

The Mets should kill the NL East this season. I've been a lifelong Phillies fan. You know that MLB Extra Innings is free this week right?
I think that I had the Mets winning 92 games this season.

The Mets must be truly blessed. Bartolo Colon, the fattest, oldest player in the league hit a home run today. No player in MLB history has hit their first home run at his age. My hero. And he rolled a baseball right to me across the top of the dugout during last year's World Series. Just look at the athleticism:

I like watching him pitch. He makes it look effortless.

Steezo.....that was the coolest shit ever yesterday. And I have been a baseball fan for 40 years. And I don't like the Mets.

It was like Eric Cartman took Redford's place in The Natural.

Thor's turn tonight. Syndergaard just hit his second home run of the night vs. the Dodgers. Amazin'!

You can delete your own posts, just click edit, then delete post. I don't think we can move/merge single posts, just threads.

Okay, thanks. Accessing this board is not the easiest thing for me to do with the technology I have at my disposal.

Whats the O/U on how much longer Freddie G makes it with the Braves?

I know Lou and H2C used to do it, but I don't think they had the system crashing down upon them like you've got today. Not your doing, of course. Anyway, more for the XXXXPornTalk thread.

I might make a couple shit threads in the Gimp Box and play around w/ moving single posts. I don't want to try moving a post out of an established thread and fucking something up.

At least somebody's trying something. Thanks, Jerky.

Isn't the simple way to just copy the post and then delete it and then paste it where you want? Or am I missing the gist?

We are dealing w/ deviants who have cum clouded thoughts.

Women, that's all the Mets can hit now.

I do figure Brooklyn Cyclones are going to get a nice bump in attendance w/ Reyes playing there for the next week.

How badly do you miss Murphy? Do you consider Wright your starting 3b going into next year or do you figure him as a bench guy?

Just imagine where we'd be without the pitching. On the flip side, imagine where we'd be with a bit more hitting. Probably 5 games up on the Nats.

I don't miss Murph as much as I dislike him being on the Nats and helping them out. After the W.S. last year, I was telling someone he should sign with an AL club and he'd prolly hit .400 if he didn't have to think about fielding. I think I was right. The Mets announcers used to always tell a story about Murphy and how he introduced himself when all the minor league guys showed up and gave out their names and positions. His response, "I'm Daniel Murphy and I hit third." He got us to the World Series last year though before the magic wore off. I would've been happy if he came back, but our current second baseman is having a career year and can actually field the position.

I'm hoping Wright after neck surgery doesn't turn into Nick Markakis after neck surgery. But I really don't see him as a starter anymore after having both back & neck issues. I hope I'm wrong and I'd love for him to come back, but there's a reason the Mets are having a workout with the best 3rd baseman from Cuba next week.

No idea what Reyes has left in the tank, but I do think he improves the team even if it's just with his energy and enthusiasm for being back in NY.

Murphy would be your 3rd baseman, not 2nd. I dont see how they move forward counting on Wright.

I knew Murphy's stats would explode away from CitiField. That is why i figured Wright would bolt to a team like the Orioles back when he was a free agent. He would be borderline HOF by now if he did the last 4-5yrs in a band box.

Bobby Bonilla gets his million from the Mets today. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/happy-bobby-bonilla-payday-mets-fans/

and they have to pay it to him until 2035. LOL!

The Wilpon family that owned the Mets was in big with Madoff, and thought that an annuitized deferral at 5% interest would net them cash because Madoff was promising a 10% annual return. Still, he makes more than deGrom and Harvey.

Anyway, the rumor is that Bonilla is perpetually out of money and spends most of what he gets each year. If he had saved one of those checks in 2000 when the DJIA was around 8,000, he'd have doubled his money by now, at least.

Look on the bright side: he didn't hire Lenny Dykstra as his broker.

Fuck Bonilla. Rode Bonds coattails and did nothing on his own.

I think the Mets also deferred a lot of Saberhagen money, banking on Madoff returns.

Shit, I think I read that we're still paying Darryl Strawberry. Great comeback win today, down 6-0 to the Marlin's and won 8-6. Matt Harvey can thank the bullpen for keeping him from becoming a career .500 pitcher. Huge 4 game sweep of the Cubs this past week also.

Here come the Mets! Amazin'!

Only a month, but I'm reserving my hotel room for Gary Sanchez's HOF induction.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2017.shtml

Who gets more votes this year, Schilling or Clemens?

Vlad & Hoffman, that is it.

Hoffman, Raines and Bagwell are the only 3 with a realistic prospect of getting 75%.

Schilling didn't cheat.

None of the above.

Bagwell, Raines, Hoffman, Pudge

No way Pudge gets in on the first ballot. HOffman is hamstrung by being a reliever, he will be scrutinized extra. Raines is on his last year of eligibility. If he hasn't made it by now, it probably won't happen. He can speak with Alan Trammell about that.

Bagwell is the closest to a ticket. He got snubbed last year because of Junior. This should be his year.

Well, I was close.

Bagwell juiced to the gills, as did I-rod.

Raines isnt a HOF er. Outstandimg player but not a HOFer


BBWA has thrned into nothing but a bunch of nerds casting votes for names they remember from childhood. Raines Smoltz & Rice going in the past few uears are right up there w/ some of the Old Timers Committee abominations of the past.

I could argue that however many home runs Bagwell hit due to steroids he also did not hit due to Astrodome.

How can those three be in the HoF but not Barry Bonds?

Bonds is a juicer and an asshole.

An asshole juicer? Sounds like a new JM series

AssholeSmoothie has already been done.

TwoGirlsOneSmoothie

And I'll believe the current players are all clean when someone can explain Justin Turner to me.

Mets look strong this year if the pitching and Cespedas stay healthy. Reds might lose 100.

Quality control staff at the Royals top secret bullpen cyborg factory need to stop jerking off to porn tubes and get back to their jobs.

Yanks over Twins tonight.
But who knows, anything can happen in one game, it's fucked up.
Astros over Red Sox in ALDS
Indians over Yanks in ALDS
Indians over Astros in ALCS

D-backs over Rockies tomorrow
Nats over Cubs in NLDS
Dodgers over D-backs in NLDS
Dodgers over Nats in NLCS

Dodgers over Indians in WS

Aaron Judge just gonna win ROY & MVP or they figure out a way to give him the Cy Youngn, also?

Four games today, it might rain in Boston. So far my predictions all look good!

How was that Indians pick, Chuck? Tanks taking their spot in the WS or Astros yer new pick?

Yanks over 'stros. Go Nats!

It'll be just like 1955.

Yankees gotta get a win from CC and turn the tide of this series.

LA in six.

Verlander looks like the Verlander on '06 since moving over to Houston.

Happened w/ Clemens and Pettitte too. This time can't say it is from moving to the NL.

Here is the list of eligible players:

Player Year on ballot Last vote %

Trevor Hoffman
Vladimir Guerrero
Edgar Martinez
Roger Clemens
Barry Bonds
Mike Mussina
Curt Schilling
Manny Ramirez
Larry Walker
Fred McGriff
Jeff Kent
Gary Sheffield
Billy Wagner
Sammy Sosa
Chipper Jones
Jim Thome
Scott Rolen
Omar Vizquel
Johan Santana
Andruw Jones
Johnny Damon
Jamie Moyer
Chris Carpenter
Kerry Wood
Carlos Zambrano
Livan Hernandez
Orlando Hudson
Aubrey Huff
Jason Isringhausen
Carlos Lee
Brad Lidge
Hideki Matsui
Kevin Millwood

Chipper will get in. To me, Chipper isn't a first ballot guy, as he hits none of the big milestones, but will get in on the first ballot w/ the TBS assist.

Vlad should have been in last year and will get in this time. Some amazing seasons wasted in Montreal.

Hoffman should get in. Being the 2nd best closer of his time, behind Mariano, shouldn't hold him back. A closer that good for that long deserves the plaque.

Thome probably get in yr 2 or 3. Visquel get in eventually.

Mussina, McGriff and Matsui probably never sniff the Hall, but I wish they would.

Mussina has way better career stats than Smoltz & Halladay (everyone been sayin he's a HOFer).

McGriff fell just short of 500HRs, and the steroid #s of the late 90s/early 00s diminish what a feared power hitter he was.

Matsui wasn't in MLB long enough. Projected out to 20yrs in the league and he would get in.

Martinez I am up in the air about. Damon is kinda close but a No.

I mostly agree. I've got Hoffman, Guerrero, C. Jones, and Thome going in.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2018.shtml

BTW, I look at old school stats. I'd take three singles over a homer every time.

WAR is for nerds who suck dick. They tout it, yet can't explain how it is determined. Then you got the issue that different places calculate it differently. BaseballReference had Altuve leading the league in WAR, but FanGraphs had Judge.

Dale Murphy

Not even close, and off the ballot.

Murphy fell apart after he got that berry cut off his face. He was probably a big season or 2 away from the Hall. Back to back MVPs though, and a catcher who became a gold glove center fielder.

Jack Morris and Alan Trammel voted in by the modern players committee.

Jack Morris

Alan Trammel

I think both are marginal, but I'm OK with them.

Morris was the ace wherever he pitched, was a finisher, has rings with 3 teams. 3.90 lifetime ERA in the Hall? Well...

Trammel had a very good glove at SS to go with those numbers. I was a big advocate of Barry Larkin for the Hall, if he is in, Trammel deserves it, too. Larkin was an All-Star twice as many times - was Trammel ever the best SS in the league?

I dunno about the "Modern Era" stuff. It's marginal, too.

Neither should be in the HOF, and I say that w/ great respect for Morris' big game ability, the 10inning shutout of the Braves in game 7 possibly being the best pressure pitching performance in my lifetime.

Trammel wasn't even a perennial All-Star, making 6 in 20yrs. Never close to the best at his position, w/ Ripken and Ozzie around.

Welcome C. Jones, Jim Thome, Vlad, Trever Hoffman

NL:
W-Dodgers
C-Brewers
E-Braves
WC-Rockies @ Cubs

Bracket:
https://www.mlb.com/postseason

Sad that the Yankees lost to the BoSux, but w/ all the injuries they had this year, they were lucky to get as far as they did.

Series also showed that relying so heavily on HRs makes the playoffs tough. Stanton would be getting ripped to shreds by 80s era, liquored up Steinbrenner. Really hoping that it was just a 1yr stop over, and he's getting traded to the Dodgers in the off season.

I hope Didi's Tommy John surgery doesn't make the front office panic and sign Machado. Team is too right handed already. Better off to let Gleyber play SS, and sign Murphy to a 3yr deal to split time between 2nd, 1st and DH. Other than that, I'd rather Machado money be spent on Starting Pitchers.

Just wanted to stop in and say that Mariano Rivera was annoited the Greatest Hall Of Famer of All Time, via unanimous induction this year.

I don't expect the same done for Captain Derek Jeter next year, because so many other towns, and their writers, got dick issues with NYC and the Yankees. Also, the rebuild of the Marlins will hurt him. #6 on the all time hit list, dude is a lay up, though.